{"id":353574,"date":"2023-12-13T01:11:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T02:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=353574"},"modified":"2023-12-13T04:02:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T04:02:28","slug":"troubled-demons-star-all-in-despite-off-season-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=353574","title":{"rendered":"Troubled Demons star &#039;all in&#039; despite off-season drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/melbourne-demons\" title=\"Melbourne\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Melbourne<\/a> CEO Gary Pert has given fans a refreshing update on <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/clayton-oliver\" title=\"Clayton Oliver\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clayton Oliver<\/a>, saying the star midfielder is &quot;in a great headspace&quot; despite a tumultuous off-season.<\/p>\n<p>Oliver is currently recovering from a minor knee procedure, but hit the training track earlier than required for Melbourne&#x27;s pre-season campaign in a welcome sign.<\/p>\n<p>The \ufeff26-year-old was <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/news-2023-clayton-oliver-hospital-visit-melbourne-demons-after-trade-contract-drama\/e942d3c9-d38a-453c-be8c-a37cf2917e1d\" title=\"hospitalised earlier this year\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hospitalised earlier this year<\/a> and has endured some well-publicised off-field struggles, but is &quot;100 per cent all in&quot;, according to Pert.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/news-2023-turkish-super-lig-president-arrested-after-punching-referee-video\/fd1cc48d-b838-46c2-b7f6-841d01e60b5d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Club boss blames &#x27;provocative&#x27; ref for vicious assault<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/news-2023-justin-langer-hated-mitchell-johnsons-column-on-david-warner-broke-unwritten-rule\/69a2d4cf-bccd-4c0e-b58f-70c9194fd207\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;Stubborn&#x27; Mitchell Johnson broke &#x27;unwritten&#x27; rule<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/news-2023-usman-khawaja-to-reportedly-wear-shoes-in-support-of-palestine-for-perth-test\/ad7b51ac-1064-40c4-b217-a8683896cb9b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Khawaja to reveal Gaza message in first Test<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;He wants to be part of something really special,&quot; \ufeffPert said at Melbourne&#x27;s annual members footy forum on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"d5603500-54e9-426f-9b94-23986ff97802\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/d5603500-54e9-426f-9b94-23986ff97802\" alt=\"Clayton Oliver pictured playing for Melbourne during the 2023 season\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\ufeffOliver&#x27;s struggles combined with <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/news-2023-joel-smith-positive-cocaine-test-melbourne-demons-sports-integrity-australia\/73a3edd8-f53a-4180-ac37-45135b3ae421\" title=\"Joel Smith&#x27;s ban for testing positive to cocaine\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Smith&#x27;s ban for testing positive to cocaine<\/a> has raised major questions on Melbourne&#x27;s culture, but Pert once again hit back at critics.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;There&#x27;s been some quite high-profile player incidents in the off-season,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I want to reassure all Melbourne members and supporters \u2026 the culture of the Melbourne FC is very strong and very resilient, and it starts with these guys here (the club&#x27;s leadership). It&#x27;s a very strong and aligned culture.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;A strong culture is about calling out when individuals aren&#x27;t in alignment with the culture, about holding people accountable.<\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6339419634112\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/pickerimage-98.jpg\" alt=\"Demons player tests positive to cocaine\" data-vms-id=\"ref:clnwglu2h00bc0krtp5cu5epz\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;We will have challenges of people not being in alignment \u2026 (but) we&#x27;ll continue to drive our cultural programs through our leaders.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think it is a competitive edge of ours (the culture) and it&#x27;s being driven by the best group of leaders I&#x27;ve seen.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;All individuals within our high-performance program will continue to get the expert support they need for their personal needs,&quot; he said. &quot;The club is absolutely there to support those individuals.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne is aiming to bounce back in 2024 after two straight-sets finals exits in the two seasons that have followed their 2021 premiership campaign.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Melbourne CEO Gary Pert has given fans a refreshing update on Clayton Oliver, saying the star midfielder is &quot;in a great headspace&quot; despite a tumultuous <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=353574\" title=\"Troubled Demons star &#039;all in&#039; despite off-season drama\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=353574"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353578,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353574\/revisions\/353578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/353576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=353574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=353574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=353574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}